I, Pabu
by Tolemac102
Summary: What with finding time to visit his ladyfriend, stopping ratcoon raids on the new cherry orchard that just happens to be his home, and trying to keep peace with the flying lemurs from the Island, Pabu hardly has time to play matchmaker between his owner's brother and the new girl, but he's sure he'll manage, somehow.
1. Excite

**Author's Note: This was in part inspired by the chapters in ****Inheritance**** that are narrated from Saphira's point of view, and especially the words she uses to describe objects. I also wanted to write a Makorra fic from an unusual PoV, and I think Pabu's is one never used before. **

**Also, if you have trouble with any of the terms, I have included a glossary on my profile. Enjoy!**

Life of a Fire Ferret

A Legend of Korra fanfiction

Chapter One: Excite

I roll carefully out of my pigeon-dove-feather-blue-string-twigs-nest, and stretch. Can't fall off the windowsill like last time; a fire ferret's pride can only take so many knocks. The sun feels good on my fur, and it outlines each hair so I appear golden. Wow. Nature is so beautiful. My owner, friend, and partner in crime – I mean _practical jokes_ – Bolin-moves-earth-called-Bo rolls out of bed, like I did, but he falls on his short-muzzle-face. I hide my grin, because I'm more mature than he is and have had more practice. Of course, this is highly debatable (and has been debated multiple times), but I digress.

Mako-bright-scarf-bright-fire is already up, puttering around the make-food-box-fire with one of my bathtubs that, for some reason, has a stick on the end. He's holding it over the fire. Good. I hope it burns. Fire ferrets do NOT go well with water. If we did, we'd be water ferrets, or steam ferrets. Get it? Water and fire make steam! That was supposed to be funny. I can't help if you have no sense of humor.

The wood-plank-on-twisties bangs open, right into a dent on the wall. Now that I think about it, that's where the dent came from. Mako-bright-scarf-bright-fire lets air out of his mouth. Loudly. I think he's annoyed. That makes sense, because Korra-moves-air-moves-water has arrived.

Korra-moves-air-moves-water is bouncy, even more so than usual. Is that good? When I get bouncy, Bolin-moves-earth-called-Bo tells me to "Stop bouncing around, you're getting dust on your fur". Then he gives me a bath. I think, out of the three of us in this sky-tall-square-human-nest, I get the most baths. I hate baths. They taste funny, and make you hiccup. So bouncy must be bad.

The two awake element-movers eat their sunrise meal. Bolin-moves-earth-called-Bo is still making loud growling noises with his nose. I must figure out how he does this, then I could frighten away the racoonrats in my sleep, but it's normal. Mako-bright-scarf-bright-fire growls (with his mouth) like an angry komodo chicken and loud-steps to the nest of Bolin-moves-earth-called-Bo, so loud I can feel it echoing in my chest. Normal.

Bolin-moves-the-earth-called-Bo gets dragged out of his nest like a naughty sparrowgull baby, except with the force that a fox-wolf uses to rip up its food. Still normal. Mako-bright-scarf-bright-fire dumps Bolin-moves-the-earth-called-Bo in his chair, and passes him a glass of round-fruit-made-of-raindrops juice. When he passes by her, Korra-moves-air-moves-water show-teeth-smiles at him, and Mako-bright-scarf-bright-fire makes his face go pink like the cherry blossom. Before, that was unusual. Now, not so much.

After they eat, the element-movers, now with Bolin-moves-earth-called-Bo sufficiently functional, they put on their hard skin-coverings that go over their clothes and the box-on-top-of-head that Mako-bright-scarf-bright-fire insists they wear.

As they leave, Mako-bright-scarf-bright-fire gives me a LOOK that says "if you damage the house, I will damage you". I continue washing my paw, unworried. I get worse threats from my ladyfriend Aiko's aunt. I stick out my tongue just a little more than necessary as I lick, but I don't think he notices.

I wait for them to leave, hear their boots thumping down the spirally-wood-blocks around and around, until there is a whoosh as the wood-planks-on-twisties open, and they are gone. I count to twenty, then stick my head out the window. There they are, entering the fighting arena around the sunside.

As soon as the wood-planks-on-twisties swings shut, I slip my claw under the metal-hook-in-ring holding the not-cold-hard-water squares in place. A quick flick of the paw and a tap with the nose, and the not-cold-hard-water square swings open. I stand there for a moment, looking over the cluster of sky-tall-squares-human-nests called Republic City. If anyone saw me, I would say I was scouting for lemurs, unless they are a ratcoon; in which case I would try to kill them without suffering grievous injury.

Then I remember my duty, and jump out the window.

For a moment, I free-fall, the wind gusting around me, the force if it roaring in my ears. I stretch out my claws as far as I can, and grasp the edge of the rosebush planted there by Toza-loud-mouth-moves-water. I've done this every day of my life since I was twelve moon-cycles old, when Bolin-moves-earth-called-Bo found me after I was beaten up by a pack of ratcoons, but it still leaves my heart in my throat every time.

I scamper down the rosebush, grateful for the overlapping branches that make for easy climbing and for my natural agility as a fire ferret. As soon as I hit the ground, I am ambushed by a forest of long-stick-cloth-legs. As I dart through them, some of the humans shriek in alarm and drop their baked-mud-water-dishes, and spilling their brown-sweet-make-bouncy-drinks. Bolin-moves-earth-called-Bo gave me some once by accident and I tried it, and then got bouncy and had to take a bath because Mako-bright-scarf-bright-fire said so. I really don't get it. I can wash myself better with my tongue than with the hiccup-bubbles. Besides, that's a waste of perfectly good brown-sweet-make-bouncy-drink.

As I squeeze between two dark blue long-stick-legs, their owner screams and drops her baked-mud-water-dish, splashing brown-sweet-make-bouncy-drink all over my dark-red fur, staining it a red-brown. I scoff inwardly, both in disbelief and in annoyance. You would expect them to get used to a fire ferret's daily commute after it's happened for two score and eight moon-cycles, but _nooooo, _of course not_..._ Now I'll have to wash my fur again. And right after I'd had my morning wash, too. Blasted brown-sweet-make-bouncy-drink.

I run along the metal-squares-with-wheels path, keeping to the humans-path, but still getting sprayed by small showers of scree as metal-squares-with-wheels speed past. The white-arch-over-river looms in front of me, and I turn abruptly to avoid a snapping squirreldog. It barks at me in a high snippy voice that seems completely inappropriate for the kinds of things it's saying. I file away some new ones, and snarl back as good as I got. Hopefully, Bolin-moves-earth-called-Bo never hears about this. His brother, Mako-bright-scarf-bright-fire tries to take care of him, and once I figured that out, I've been trying to help. Honest. That shattered baked-mud-food-dish that fell out the open not-cold-hard-water-on-twisties wasn't my fault. That was the dumb pigeondove.

At the edge of the pond-lake, I screech to a halt. I glance around. The turtleduck family is in the water on the other side of the white-arch-over-river. The ratcoons are wherever they live during the day. The grey-hair-fish-man is nowhere to be found. The polarbear-dog called Naga that belongs to Korra-moves-air-moves-water isn't here either. Good. They can't know. Not about this.

I slide in through a gap in the white-arch-over-river, emerging inside the structure. Following my reasonably accurate memory, I weave sunside, then moonside, skipping two moonside turns before taking another turn sunside, until I reach a curved metal surface. The water-bringer-rod. This one, according to Chief Deno, is one of the wider ones, but I still have to squeeze to get through. The water in it is much cleaner than the water in any of this kind of rod in the city, but it still reeks horribly of fish. I wrinkle my nose, squint, and try not to breathe too much.

I follow its path, whiskers brushing either side, my paws soaked, until I reach the spot where light filters through a hole in the ceiling. Some ferret before me has placed a wooden board there, to ease climbing up and to avoid snagged claws. The bottom is a bit rotten, but it still holds my weight. I scramble up, jump through the hole, and emerge into the mid-morning sunlight. It takes a few moments for my eyes to adjust, but as soon as they do, apprehension strikes me.

A ratcoon stares back at me, teeth bared in a blood-thirsty snarl.

**Author's Note: So, there's the first chapter of a multi-chapter fic concerning Pabu's rather complicated life. Hope you liked it! I will upload the second chapter if I get eight reviews. That isn't too many, right?**


	2. Laugh

**Author's Note: Oh, my gods! One day- ELEVEN reviews. I'm impressed. I never expected this many. I thought the reception would be something along the lines of xFroggyFernyCabbagex's review, except with the ending: "This is lame. I'm never reading this again." I'm glad nobody thinks so.**

**There aren't as many Pabu-names for things in this chapter. This is because he is familiar with most of the objects because they occur naturally. Pabu-names are only for human-made things.**

Life of a Fire Ferret

A Legend of Korra fanfiction

Chapter Two: Laugh

I hiss in surprise, leaping back and hitting my head against a rock. The pain rockets through my skull, needle-sharp, banishing my fear. I breathe in with my mouth, out through my nose, and spring out of the tunnel before I lose my nerve. My fur fluffed out to twice its normal size, my teeth bared in a snarl, I circle the ratcoon.

Only after several rounds do I realize something is amiss, and look more closely at the ratcoon. It is limp, its grey-brown fur even more scraggly than usual. Its neck is shaped funny, as if broken, and its eyes are glazed over. The clues are obvious, but it still takes me a moment to come to a conclusion that doesn't include death-mimic plants or horribly accurate disguises: the ratcoon is actually a ratcoon, and the ratcoon is actually dead.

My guess is verified when I hear guffaws coming from a bush beside the tunnel entrance, now behind me. This takes me less time to guess: the distinctive sound is one I grew up with. With a friendly snarl, I leap toward the bush, smacking into another fire ferret: Katon.

We grapple for a moment, and I pin him down. But he is shaking so hard from laughter that I lose my grip after a while. He slaps the earth with one dark paw, grey eyes dancing as he looks at me. Apparently what he sees is hilarious, as he loses his balance, laughing uproariously as he rolls around. When he finally calms down, he manages to gasp out "Your-your face!" before again dissolving into hilarity.

This repeats several times, me glaring at him, him giggling, until he finally regains a proper amount of dignity for the chieftain's son. He coughs discreetly, spitting out dust, and cleans his fur as if the bout of laughter had never occurred. I give him one of my "I know that you know that I know that you're crazy, and I really should go find a mental doctor _right now_, but I think this is contagious, and I'd hate to be the one that starts a fit-inducing plague" look. He looks back at me innocently.

I grasp him by the scruff of his neck in annoyance, dragging him along after me as I set off toward the headquarters of the Eastern Fire Ferret tribe, called the Friskies. It's a horrid name, I agree completely, but as the naming chief had no imagination (or no understanding of idiotic names), and because we have not yet been able to gather the entire tribe together to revote the name, we are still called the Friskies. Luckily, there aren't any other Ferret tribes in the City, so our name is only half as lame on the scale, as there are neither better nor worse names to compare to.

When we get there, Katon shakes himself out of my grasp. His father, Chief Deno, is standing on his hind feet, gesturing wildly with his forepaws, and yelling. His bushy graying eyebrows are raised and scrunched together, giving him the look of a madman. Not that I would say so. I like my ears as they are.

I stand to one side until Chief finishes lecturing an apprentice Sento, or warrior. As I wait, I glance around the cellar of what once was a junkyard. There are piles of human-junk lying around, casting unnatural shadows on the surface of the hard-packed earth. The camp-nest is bbustling with activity, as it usually is in the morning. The Sento are everywhere, entering and exiting the camp from the side entrance under the hood of an old Satomobile, crowding around the food-pile, cleaning in preparation for the day's activities. The sento-ki are absent, probably gone for the day as they scout around the city.

The Chief's yelling stops, and I turn to look at him. The sento-ki scurries off in fright. The Chief mutters something inaudible under his breath. I am certain it isn't very polite. He spots me, and twitches his tail, summoning me to his side. "Pabu! Good to see ye made it!" As if I hadn't made it every day since I was able to climb and get away from Bolin-moves-the-earth-called-Bo. The rest of the conversation is cut off as one of the Sento-sentries cries out, the sound of guests.

I look up. The sky is cloudless, except a small grey cloud speeding towards us. I grin, and run towards the top of the junk heap. The Island lemurs are here.

It's always a breathtaking sight, usually one that sparks a bit of jealousy, but, as always, I push the emption down and focus at what's at paw. The lemurs usually spin around, ducking and diving and dodging, but today they are just a grey mass of fur and wings, speeding towards us. As they approach, I notice Ling swooping past Phun-lai, the elderly chieftain of the Island lemurs, who is also, coincidentally, his grandfather. Then Ling crashes into me. See, breathtaking, isn't it? We tumble off the junk heap and I end up breaking his fall, my snout buried in a pile of I-don't-even-want-to-know. Then Katon lands on us. "Oof," I gasp. "You guys are killing me."

I can't see anything, but I know Ling is smirking. He's always smirking, and then he says something, and then I say something, and then he says something witty or unfortunately true, then I say "Touché." It always ends like that.

"You deserve it," he says, poking Katon in the ribs so he giggles and falls off. "It was your fault we ended up wet and muddy last week."

"No it wasn't," I argue, squirming. "That was Katon." From the sidelines, I can hear the traitor yelling something about Ling being a world-class wrestler and me being a pansy-butt. I growl. I am _so_ going to kill him later.

"He didn't want to chase the pigeon-doves to raid their nest," I snarl, and relax my muscles, digging my claws into a scrap of white-tree-flat-with-squiggles. He leans his weight backwards in one split second, and I propel myself upwards, catching him unaware. I flip him over and snarl in his face.

He groans. "I yield."

As I jump off I make sure to step on his tail, to make up for the time he stepped on mine. "Since when have you had to tell the victor he won?" I ask.

He huffs, and gets up. With an air of wounded pride, he declares, "Touché." I grin. Except this time.

I turn to look for Katon, and spot a flash of brown-red disappearing around the barracks of the sento-ki. There. I chase after him with a playful snarl. He leads me around the sakura trees, their fruits hanging in maroon globes among the dark red leaves. A single white flower drifts toward me, and as I pass it, I leap up to clap it between my front paws. We dash around the lavender beds, where I surprise Katon as he winks at a pretty ferret. Saki, I think her name is. Then we swerve around an old, beat-up metal-square-with-wheels.

I notice a vague blur of red in front of Katon, but that doesn't matter, I'm gaining on him, the wind rushing through my fur, the scent of sakura and lavender in my nose, the ground firm and solid beneath my paws. Then I smash into him and we roll over, one on top of the other, like we did when we were young. Ling lands beside us and tries to hide his amusement. Then Katon and I collide with something- or rather, _someone._

Ling's face has suddenly morphed to the studied, serious face he wears at council meetings. I look up, worry gnawing at my heart, but balanced by the exhilaration of the chase. Chief Deno and Phun-lai look down at me.

I skitter backwards, off Katon, as fast as I can, then sit up, staring into the space between the two chieftains. Katon looks at me strangely for a moment, and then catches on. I see a shadow of worry flit across his face, but then it is gone, and I can only wonder if I imagined it. Phun-lai leans in, eyeing first me, then Katon, then his grandson.

"What's this?" he blares, making Katon jump. I had forgotten his sergeant-like demeanor, possibly brought on by the onset of old age. I have long since gotten used to loud, sudden noises, and my only indication is a momentary increase in heart rate. "What are you three lily-livered, pansy-tailed-" Ling and I look at each other, then look away. Ling is smirking "What's that you're looking at?" bellows Phun-lai.

Looking straight ahead, I shout back in my best parade-ground voice. "Nothing, sir!"

"Good, because you three greenies shouldn't be out in times like this. I say, you three greenies shouldn't be out _in times like this!_" he shouts the last bit in Katon's face. Katon's whisker twitches. Apparently he'd gotten used to the yelling, if not to the senility. "The enemy is coming! The red toads are coming! The pink frogs are coming! Sound the alarm! The-"

"The point is, the ratcoons are attacking," says Chief Deno, looking at us sternly. "The day after tomorrow."

Evidently remembering the incident earlier today, Katon starts laughing again. Ling and I share a glance of hopeless hilarity. Then we join in, abandoning any and all parade-ground behavior.

Phun-lai glares.

**Author's note: So, there you have it: the second installation of I, Pabu. How about twelve reviews this time? Is that a reasonable number?**


	3. Friendship

**Author's Note: After rereading the original chapter, I realized how horribly it tied into the last chapter. In over words - it didn't. So I've changed it. Um. Enjoy?**

I, Pabu

Chapter Three: Friendship

We follow Phun-lai and Chief Deno underground to the meeting chamber. All of the other Council members are already there, and glare at us as we troop in through the door. All nice and obedient like nice little koala-sheep. Whatever those are.

Chief Deno walks tall and stately, with his 'I'm the Chieftain and I'm in charge' face on. Phun-lai follows him, not quite as stately, because he's limping from an old war wound that he supposedly got from some war. Because we _totally_ have had _lots_of wars since the last one several hundred years ago. Or maybe thousands, I forget which.

Chief Deno settles into his seat, coughs importantly, flicks his tail at the recorder, and begins. "Ahem, today, we gather in a Council of War..." I applaud with everyone else, dutifully. Chief Deno is great at lots of things, but speeches really aren't his thing.

The rest of the meeting is boring, as usual, but the words of the chieftains are underscored by a sense of looming danger. Right. The ratcoons. I shift in my seat for what seems like the fiftieth time, but keep quiet. I know I don't have to sit through all these meetings, but I'm my fathers son, and my father was Chief Deno's army general, and I'm just picking up a few tricks of the trade.

Plus, I'd have to subject Ling and Katon to the unimaginable horrors of sitting through meetings all on their lonesome. Their minds can't deal with the stress if I'm not there to loosen the tension at opportune moments. Like letting free giant moths just when Phun-lai is about to give his speech. Really. Nobody appreciates the work it takes to catch those things or the fact that they would have died of boredom listening to Phun-lai talk. He's even worse of a public speaker than Chief Deno. It's true. Both of their sons can attest to that. I've checked.

"Thank you, Chieftains, for your time," says Chief Deno loudly, and I look up with a start. The meeting is over, and I've just had a morning nap. Oops. I wipe drool off my nose with a paw, and run my tongue through my chest fur a few times to hide my embarrassment.

There's the collective sigh as twenty or so ferrets and lemurs get up and file out the door, nodding to me as they go. As the youngest, Ling and Katon are the last ones out, Ling in front of Katon, which he always teases Katon about. Technically, I'd be ahead of both of them, but I'm sort-of-almost a commoner, so I don't have the rights. Poo.

"Nice nap, Pabu?" asks Ling, smirking. I glare at him and kick him in the shoulder, but it doesn't seem to affect his eternally collected demeanor. He kicks me back. I hold back a wince and glare at him, this time giving him my "you have angered the Pabu, now you shall suffer my wrath" look. His gaze trails to a line of shiny bubbles floating a few hundred feet above our heads.

I know that he wants to chase them, but also that he wants to spend time with us. If he goes after the bubbles, we might not see him for the rest of the day, so I'm glad when Katon changes the subject.

"So, Pabu, you said there was this nice lady ferret you'd met?" He smirks, looking scarily like Ling. I take that back. Not so glad.

"Oh. Er," I try to look calm. The lady ferret in question is Akai, this nice girl who lives north-ish of that old cabbage place, near the winter home of the turtleducks. We met once when she was about to murder one of my swallow-robin friends – Luk, I think. Or maybe it was Jot. Afterwards, we just sort of kept in touch. "Yeah?" I ask cautiously.

"You said you were going take us to meet her," said Katon. "Isn't now a good time, right before we all die? We get to meet your girlfriend, then we can die!" I smile. Katon, the ever-pessimistic optimist.

"You did?" Ling suddenly looks interested. "Can I come?"

For a moment, I debate with myself, telling myself it was a secret, and that Katon had no business blurting it out to Ling. We're friends, but me and Katon are closer than Ling and I are. Then I nod. Might as well, following Katon's logic, before we die. "Okay, I'll take you. Ready?"

"Wait!" screeches Ling. "Now?"

Katon grins that maniac smile of his. "Now."

"But we have to-" Ling stops, appearing to think this through. "Okay. Forget princely duties. Let's go."

Moments later, he balks again. "How're we going to get out?"

I look at Katon, and he smiles. "We sneak out. Duh."

Ling raises a surprised eyebrow. "With that horrid tunnel you showed me last time we went to get cherries that nearly collapsed on us and squished all the cherries?"

I feel a momentary pang of jealousy. Before the truce with the lemurs, it was me that went with Katon to nick cherries. But now that I live with Bolin-moves-earth-called-Bo and Mako-bright-scarf-bright-fire, I'm only around half the time. Katon's found a new partner in crime, and I've found Bolin-moves-earth-called-Bo.

Katon nods. "Unless you have a better idea." Ling doesn't. So we follow Katon to the tunnel.

It looks the same as it did the last time I was here, which was the day before the accident with the ratcoons. Before I met Bolin-moves-earth-called-Bo. Grass covering the entrance, scree and gravel piled around to avoid pawprints, everything is meticulously planned out, as usual.

It isn't until I enter the tunnel that there's any difference. I wrinkle my nose. "What's that smell? It smells like Korra-moves-air-moves-water's sakura pie filling mixed with week old fish skin!"

"Um," Katon sounds nervous. "Remember the cherries?" Oh, right. I totally knew that, and say as much to Katon.

"Right," drawls Ling. "You did."

I ignore him, and let my paws trace the worn trail they remember so well.

We emerge out into the sunlight, and my eyes adjust almost instantly. Ferrets are just awesome like that. Katon pulls a stalk of nearby lavender over to the tunnel, marking the entrance the way he did the first time we used the tunnel. The look he gives me says he hasn't forgotten out friendship. I nod.

The three of us bound down the sakura-covered hills, to meet my almost-girlfriend.


End file.
